Our Personal Vows

I asked Boyet if he wanted to have personal vows in our wedding. Since he is not outspoken and a firm believer of “Actions speak louder than words”, I was expecting he’d turn down the idea. But I was more than surprised when he told me that he’s up for it. Some Catholic churches allow the addition of personal vows in the wedding rites, some don’t. San Agustin Church told us that they only allow it if we are having a guest priest. Since we didn’t have one, we decided to just include it in our reception program.

I finished creating my vow two days before the wedding. I tried not to make it sound so serious so I attempted to inject some humor in it. On the other hand, Boyet was still finishing his vow on the morning of our wedding day! I was already willing to remove it from the program but he insisted that he wanted to do it.

We could hear both chuckles and sobs while we were reciting our personal vows. People were actually expecting Boyet, being the funny guy that he is, would make them laugh. But he was really serious. And they were not expecting that I’d be the one to crack jokes. Hihi!

Boyet came first. While my vow was computerized and printed on a pink bond paper, his was written using a pencil on a pink index card. :p

When I woke up this morning, I can’t remember my life as terrified as I was, or as nervous. Then I’ve come to realize that I don’t need to marry you because I’m already bound to you for eternally. And there’s nothing in this planet that could make my love for you any stronger. Not the ceremony we’ve planned here today, not a piece of paper, not a blessing by a holy man. Nothing else is going to make me happy anymore, only you.

I’m looking forward to spend the rest of my life with you. I want your face to be the first that I would see when I wake up in the morning and be the last before I sleep in the evening. I’ve waited all my life for this day. So I will not hide and will try anything and everything to be with you. This is true. (FYI, I laughed in this part because he was trying to sound like Ryan Cabrera in his song TRUE. Nobody seemed to notice :p)

I don’t need to marry you. I want to marry you. I’m standing here with you in front of our friends and families to show them how important you are to me; you and no one else.

I just want you to know that the man you got married with today had no doubts about the sincerity of his love for you. I promise to be a loving husband to you and a good father to our children. I vow to love you and care for you as long as we shall live. I take you with all your faults and strengths. I will help you when you need help and turn to you when I need help. I promise to love you in good times and bad. I promise to cherish you and to always hold you in the highest regard.

These things I give to you today and all the days of our lives. I love you baby.

He was crying non-stop! And he kept on crying while reciting his vow. You’ll get to see what I’m talking about when I post our onsite video. I was trying not to, but reading my part brought back a lot of memories. And then I just found my pink paper already soaked in tears. :p

When I met you 11 years ago, I didn’t have the slightest idea that we’ll be here today. Fast forward five years later, even our closest friends could not believe how we ended up together. A friend once said that some people are lucky enough not to even lift a finger when falling in love. But in our case, we needed to lift the whole universe and even face a battalion of angry monsters just to reach this day. And saying that, I know that you’ll agree with me that it was all worth it. If God would give me His pen and let me rewrite our own love story, I would not change anything. For all the trials we’ve been through, all the pains we felt, all the tears we shed, just made us appreciate days like these even more.

I can’t promise you that the bad days are already over. I bet we’ll even have tougher times. But I promise not to leave your side. I promise never to give up the way I did before.

There may be times when I’ll get too tired to cook for you. When that happens, I promise to gather all my strength to grab the can opener and open a can of sardines for us to share.

Every time you introduce me to your friends and colleagues, they usually ask “E bakit ang ganda nya?”, or “Di nga girlfriend mo talaga siya?” or “San ka nakabili ng helmet nya?” For months, these have changed to “Seryoso, papakasalan mo si Boyet?” and even “May panahon ka pa para magbago isip mo.” But don’t ever think that they are insulting you, I know deep in my heart that they are just complementing me. Now that I am your wife, I can’t promise that you will no longer get those reactions. That’s the price you have to pay for marrying me. But always remember this promise - Magmakaawa man sa harap ko si Derek Ramsay, maglupasay man ng walang patid si John Lloyd Cruz, mag hunger strike man si Ryan Reynolds, ipangako man ni Brad Pitt na iiwan nya si Angelina Jolie, o kahit ipagpalit pa ni David Beckham si Posh Spice para sa’kin… I promise that whatever happens, you will be my one true love, my sexiest hunk, my cutest partner in life. I am not scared to grow old with you. Years from now, even if you become thirty pounds heavier, with your sagging skin and wrinkled face, with all your hair and teeth gone, I promise that you will still be my prince charming.

A lot of people spend the rest of their lives searching their soul mate but never finds them. So now that I have found you, I promise to never let you go. I promise to love you faithfully. I promise to take care of you and the family that we are about to build together. Even if I hate basketball, I promise to let you watch the NBA games. I promise to eagerly listen to all your stories. I promise to laugh even at your corniest joke. I promise to inspire you to be the best that you can ever be. I promise that I will remain to be your number 1 fan, your grammar teacher… your confidant… your best friend.

I can’t promise that I will never throw tantrums again. There will be days when you will battle my mood swings. These will probably be on top of my PMS days. But I promise that I will make up for the bad days. I promise to continuously be your source of happiness and contentment.

I vow to be the other half of the home that we will be creating. For with the two of us and with God in the center of our marriage, I am confident that we’re going to have one amazing life together.

Apart from all these promises, I want to say one last thing. Thank you Baby. Thank you for saving me over and over again. I gave up on love long ago. But you gave me hope. And every day, you give me reasons to believe in love, magic, fairy tales and happy endings.

After the reception, our closest friends said that our personal vows were funny yet touching. A very close friend told me that hearing our vows brought smile on her face. Actually, I still feel giddy every time I think of it. :)

P.S. Yes, I now watch PBA, NBA and boxing matches. Just today, I gave up watching the Masterchef marathon just so he could watch the Smart Gilas vs Korea game! :p